Parallel Epiphany
by Star Josherson
Summary: AU. Nawaki survives the mission. Tsunade dies facing Hanzou. And the threads of fate take another route. One-shot.


A/N: Yet another 'what if' featuring Nawaki and inspired while reading Lady Azar de Tameran's one-shot, 'Half the Man' in the Avatar: The Last Airbender fandom.

**Epiphany:** _**a**__(1)_: a usually sudden manifestation or perception of the essential nature or meaning of something _(2)_: an intuitive grasp of reality through something (as an event) usually simple and striking _(3)_: an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure

_**b**_: a revealing scene or moment

Plot/Summary: AU. Nawaki survives the mission. Tsunade dies facing Hanzou. And the threads of fate take another route. One-shot.

**revised: 3/18/2013**

* * *

_Parallel Epiphany_

He prefers to forget the day his life turned into hell. It should have been him who was supposed to be the mangled corpse, not his teammate. But serious Hirohito, prodigy Hirohito is the one that dies in his stead. And goofball and boisterous Nawaki is the one that survives to live another day. He was only twelve at the time, but that mission changes him, his remaining teammate and Orochimaru-sensei. It almost breaks him, but Tsunade-nee-chan and Mito-obaa-chan are there when he wakes screaming from the horrible nightmares of _that_ day. They soothe him as best they can, but there are things a shinobi must endure and nightmares are part of it. They haunt you, they never leave you.

But he has his family and friends to go on, but that changes during the course of the war. Senju Tsunade, his older sister, his best friend, his confidante, dies from her wounds after facing Hanzou the Salamander in Ame and is recognized by the title of Densetsu no Sannin posthumously in Konoha with her name etched in the memorial stone. Her teammates are never the same after her death. Orochimaru-sensei begins distancing himself and if he read scrolls, books as a pastime, it now becomes an obsession. Jiraiya becomes keen on training a bunch of ragtag children he encountered on Ame and doesn't return to Konoha for a while.

Tsunade-nee-chan's dreams of becoming the greatest medic nin of all the Elemental Countries dies with her, along with her plans of adding a medical aide to teams on the battlefield. A plan that was inspired on his near death experience and he becomes determined, resolved to make that a reality. Her dreams and legacy become his.

He _will_ be, he _has_ to be the best damn medic nin and Hokage that ever existed in the Elemental Nations. He starts asking his grandmother for training in the medical arts, on sealing, on everything he can get his hands into to make his sister's dream come true. He starts volunteering in the hospital, spending after-hours past his bedtime, training like a madman and never listening to his grandmother's pleas to stop the madness he has immersed himself into.

He isn't on par with Tsunade, he's half the medic his sister was. He can hardly summon slugs, he can't manage to beat Chiyo for a time and only learns to beat the damnable old hag through trial and error. Of course, that only leads him to being called "that slug-girl's damnable annoying little brother" and he makes it on her list of persona non grata. He adds her to his list of annoying problematic witches.

During that delusional time he meets his buddy, his best-est friend, his older brother, Katou Dan, a man that shares the same dream as his, to be Hokage, to protect Konoha's precious people, his grandfather's people. He's loyal, caring, has a sense of justice and most of all he takes care of his orphaned niece after his sister died in the field. There's something about the older silver-haired blue-eyed man that makes him smile wistfully and think of his older sister, 'cause, yes, if Tsunade and Dan had met they would've liked each other. And for the first time in his life he couldn't care less if he becomes the leader of the village or not, because he knows that if he doesn't then he'll become his buddy's right-hand man and vice versa. Dan becomes the lifeline that keeps his sanity during the horrible depression that engulfs him when Mito-obaa-chan dies.

Life is good, life is great, but good things never seem to last…

It's _his_ fault, really, because he shouldn't have attended his wounded fallen comrade. He never quite forgets the shock in his face when the blow meant for him is blocked by none other than his buddy before he falls to the ground. Caring Dan, loyal Dan is coughing blood with a smile.

"I guess I won't becoming, Hokage, ne, Nawaki?" is all he can manage to hear before he finds himself turning to his brother, his best friend, his buddy and trying to save him from his wounds, but it's useless, it's hopeless. Katou Dan, jounin of Konoha, dies in Senju Nawaki's arms.

It's the first failure on the list medical and personal failures, but he goes on 'cause that's what Dan would've wanted. But he can't help but feel guilty every time he avoids Dan's niece. It's not that he hates her or anything, but it's because it's painful. If it had been Tsunade, she would've taken the girl in and left the village or retired to raise the girl, but he isn't his sister, he's Senju Nawaki.

He's a lot like his grandfather with a dash of his uncle's personality, unruly light-brown hair and forest-green eyes that couldn't be more fitting where he's living. He still can laugh amidst the pain he has suffered, because he still has his family and friends to go on. He has the insufferable, yet lovable cousin Uzumaki Kushina, prankster extraordinaire and his so called rival, at least for her, for Hokage.

It's admirable, commendable that his little cousin wants to be the first female Hokage and during one of those run-in's to the Academy, 'cause Kushina-chan got once again into trouble, he meets _him_. The first time he sees him he swears he sees his sister and Jiraiya in him. Blonde hair the same shade as Tsunade, unruly like Jiraiya, blue eyes that are definitely from the Uzumaki side of the family and a calm personality that is all too familiar. Namikaze Minato _must_ have Senju blood in him he swears and when he asks the Sandaime about it, the old man neither confirms it nor denies it and it pains just a little to not know whether or not the blonde boy is his nephew.

Whether or not he's whatever that's left from Tsunade-nee-chan and despite the neither refusal nor confirmation of the boy's parentage he keeps an eye out for the boy. Always watching, always smiling proudly at his accomplishments and always smiling at the brat's antics. Minato becomes for all purposes and reasons the nephew he wished he had and Kushina becomes the annoying little sister.

It is with friends like these that he goes on, but fate and destiny has never smiled upon him…

The Third Shinobi War happens and its casualties breaks him just a little, but he's proud too because his nephew is chosen as Yondaime over him and Orochimaru-sensei after the end of it. He doesn't care that he didn't get chosen, for him it's an honor to serve under Yondaime Hokage Namikaze Minato and he will do anything on his power to help him, even if he isn't his right-hand man. But his reign as the village's leader doesn't last very much…

The Kyuubi's attack happens with Minato and Kushina sacrificing themselves by sealing the beast into their own son to save the village. They name him Naruto and he can't bear to look at him without feeling a pang in his chest.

A painful scar among the dozens he's received during his lifetime. Everyone he meets, every good thing in his life is gone and it doesn't last very much. It's a curse, _he_ must be cursed. And by the time the Sandaime offers him the hat, he refuses without any guilt. He's become too tired, too jaded.

He doesn't care about the Hokages anymore, hell he doesn't even care about the village. Anyone who wants to be Hokage it's a fool, an idiot to have such a dream. That's what he tells the old coot Sandaime before he leaves the village with nothing but the clothes on his backpack and a nice sum of cash.

The only time he ever steps voluntarily into the village is two years after the Kyuubi's attack when he hears his sensei defects the village after being found out that he's the culprit behind the decrepit, morbid experiments that were being found during wartime. The twelve year old ANBU codenamed Tenzou, the sole survivor of the Mokuton experiment out of sixty children, is one his victims. It's the last blow, the last straw and it gives him all the more reasons to not come back. The only reason he's here is to make Mitarashi Anko, a kindred spirit being that they were taught by the same man, an offer to become his apprentice.

The purple-haired brown-eyed fourteen year-old declines much to his bemusement and to the amusement of Sarutobi. She decides to maintain her ties with Konoha and states loud and clear that the medical area is _not_ her area. 'I ain't into that sissy shit,' he quotes remembering her exact same words. Oh, well, her loss that she doesn't want to leave this joint and be apprenticed under the best damn medic in Konoha, at least.

He leaves the next day, after effortlessly avoiding a _certain_ relative of his buddy, and swears to never return to the damn place. The next ten years is spent on gambling more so than drinking. Gambling that was taught by his sister who was taught by their grandfather, of whom he hardly remembers. And unlike Tsunade who would always loose, he always wins. If he looses, he knows something wrong is going to happen as it usually does. Drinking is not much of his thing, but when certain dates arrive he proceeds to get himself thrashed. Everything's the same and he couldn't be more pleased with the monotony.

Of course, some things are too good to be true and his peace is interrupted by a certain perverted white-haired Sannin who comes along with two _familiar _people in tow and of whom he _swore_ he would never see…

They came for the sole mission of retrieving him to be Hokage, the freaking Godaime Hokage and the answer that comes easily out of his mouth is no. 'Those who want to be Hokage are fools, they are idiots to want a title that is a glorified damn desk job with pretty little minions called ninja,' he states and that's that.

Naturally, the blond loud-mouth retaliates defending the names of the previous leaders, introduces himself as Uzumaki Naruto and tells him straight out that he'll be greatest Hokage surpassing all Hokages. Nawaki laughs hollowly for the first time in a long time. Here's this kid, this genin dressed all in orange telling him the same dream and the same nindo he had. It's an irony, a damn freaking irony and he knows the reason Jiraiya brought him here for and he might have a slight chance at convincing him to come back, not that he'll ever admit it to Naruto later on.

Their encounter pretty much goes straight into hell after that. Orochimaru appears with the offer of bringing back Dan and his sister, Naruto wins the bet much to his surprise which means something bad is gonna happen, the remaining Sannin plus a Sannin's student face off and a myriad of events he doesn't want to even bother to remember happen.

In the end he still doesn't want to go back and be the damned Hokage, but he'll take the damn job just to shut the annoyance up. 'It's probably stupid,' he reflects looking at the village's gates they are approaching as he tries not to smile wryly.

"You're home, Nawaki, you're finally home," he swears he hears his sister say and he nods in assessment, because he knows Konoha is finally welcoming its albeit yet reluctant prodigal son. Nawaki has a long way to go, that he knows, but he'll give Konoha and the Hokages in its whole a second chance.

At least, that's a start…

* * *

A/N: I cried in the middle of the story while I was in the process of writing this one-shot 'cause it was so painful to write his suffering and I do hope I succeed it in that. This is the first role-reversal I've ever done and I couldn't be more proud of it.

I'd thought I should make something clear on a certain paragraph in the story, the stories implies but does not imply that Minato is Tsunade and Jiraiya's son. It's a two way street, you can choose the way you want to interpret the text. While Minato might have or may have not some Senju in him remains to be seen and he doesn't have to necessarily the Sannin's son either. I do hope this clears some doubts and whatever questions you may have. Thanks for understanding.

A shout out to Lady Azar de Tameran who gave me her permission to use her plot as a guide, to freewolf17 on her birthday and to the rest of you too who happen to be reading.

Without further due, I hope you have enjoyed this! Have a nice day! ^^


End file.
